The Alchemy of Story

There’s a magical sort of alchemy that takes place when words are transformed into images. Equally remarkable is the moment a story rooted in reality begins to take on a life of its own.

Spencer Reed's story has been decades in the making. When he first told me about growing up harvesting tobacco in rural Florida, it sounded less like the childhood of someone raised in the 1980s and 1990s than a story from the Great Depression.

Hope.

A necessary narcotic for filmmakers, creators, and anyone determined to leave the world a little better than they found it. But eventually quiet hope must be replaced by sometimes sweaty determination. I'm still occasionally astonished that a feature screenplay written across hundreds of phone calls, text messages, and emails has led us here—to a short film with genuine production value.

My amazement continues as I watch talented actors discover meanings in scenes we thought we already understood. Entire ideas have emerged from a single audition.

As we search online for houses that resemble Joey's childhood home, source wardrobe, and wrestle with a hundred tiny production decisions, the day-to-day frustrations can sometimes overshadow the magic but only for a moment.

Because we're making a movie.

And we hope you will join us.